Africa: Day 2 (VF + Kasane, Botswana)

Ahhh, coffee has never tasted as good as it did this morning. 11 hours of sleep later, I was elated for a beautiful breakfast and hot cup of coffee to get a busy day started.

There were parts of Vic Falls that we didn’t get to yesterday, so we headed back off after breakfast. It’s very different in the morning. Significantly less people trying to sell you things and the mist from the falls seemed to be less intense. We made it all the way to the final stop in the park this time, overlooking the gorge and some very brave whitewater rafters. Was nice to get up and have a good walk before we boarded the bus to Botswana.

Botswana is known as the “gem” of Africa. A major hub for diamond mining, this city produces over 11 million carats a year.

Botswana border crossing was simple, but fascinating. Not only did we have to stop and show our passports and vaccine cards, we also had to bring all shoes on board and ‘rinse’ them this muddy puddle to sanitize them before coming into the country. Even the bus had to drive through a big pool of this liquid. It apparently has something to do with the animals in each country - they try to avoid cross contamination of plants & animals from country to country for various reasons. Basically, I think I’m Botswana baptized and I’m good to be here for the next 6 days.

Stopped at the ATM to get some Pulu, the local currency, as many of the lodges and campsites we’ll be at experience power outages and it’s never certain if you’ll be able to use a credit card. A few snacks later, we were about 10 minutes form the lodge. Checked in, had about an hour for lunch at the lodge (some South African wine + “Wonder Woman pizza” (Aunt Lynn, you would have approved) and we were due to head out on our sunset cruise on the Chobe River.

The Chobe River serves as the dividing line between Botswana and Namibia. There’s even an island that they fought over for years and ultimately was split in half based on depth for each country. Botswana, as they will tell you, ‘has most of the wildlife.’

I tried not to research too much about the actives we were going to be getting into because I figured with wildlife, you just never knew and I didn’t want to be disappointed. Well. I wasn’t.

We had an incredible guide that drove this giant barge like a pro (with just 15 of us on it) and seemed to know exactly where to park and for how long to really see the most of each opportunity we had.

• Cape Buffalo: about 1/3 of the size of an American buffalo, these are major hunters; they’re often see with a lions head on their tusks for up to a week after they’ve killed them. Not to mention, it can take 4-6 lions to take this animal down. They’re strong and quite fierce.

• Hippos: the most dangerous animal in the Chobe; they can stay submerged for 6+ minutes so you have no idea where they are when they drop below the surface.

• African Savanna Elephants; Chobe is home to over 60,000 of these animals. Ever wonder why you see elephants constantly kicking or dusting the group with their feet and trunk? They are trying to remove the dirt from the grass they are about to eat; if they were to eat the dirt, it could wear down their teeth and ultimately prevent them from being able to consume their grasses successfully.

• Nile Crocs: I was approximately 100 feet closer to this guy than I would have cared for, but there was something exhilarating knowing he was close, but peacefully sleeping in the grasses.

• Impala: medium -ized in the antelope family.

• Red Lechwe: small -ized in the antelope family.

• So many birds

We saw so much wildlife and while I knew it was going to be cool, I found myself really emotional at watching these animals in 100% their normal daily routines. Herding the babies. Coming down for water. Feeding on the grasses. Taking a swim (or a float for the giant hippos). We live in such an incredibly beautiful world. It overwhelms me to think that I could have spent my life only seeing these majestic creatures inside captivity.

Not to mention, the incredible African sunset on the Chobe River.

Came back to camp and grabbed dinner as a group. Departure @ 5:45AM for our morning safari. Lions, tigers, giraffes. So much potential! Can’t wait to bundle up for some desert cold and see what this beautiful country has in store for us.